From the perspective of most Lilitai during the Years of the Fringe, the universe was a magical place, awash with the sorcery of haspina, the doings of gods (whether behind the Khabla, above the Lerossa, or strung through the Darina), and incomprehensible connections between seemingly-unrelated events mediated through the Etharine. While a small number of the tribe's members had demonstrable skill in wielding the powers of the Expanse, and could perform parlour tricks like freezing trees and closing doors through primitive invocations, the demand for magical intervention far exceeded this meagre supply. So the Stillanivíai, including religious authorities appointed by Sarthía herself, understood that if they did not provide fortune-reading services to the people, they would lose their monopoly as shepherds of the tribe.

Rich traditions of divination were passed down both by the Slokdtabasa and the Oksete, built over the course of many centuries of revelation. Of the knowledge available to the Stillanivíai, two main forms emerged in the first century: cymatospicy, which was largely a novel invention, and capnomancy, which was a traditional sort of smoke-reading that originated in the practices of alchemists of Dashro.